FC Dallas was visited today by an amputee team. They are a combination of a Haitian amputee team and a couple guys representing the American Amputee Soccer Association (http://ampsoccer.org/). All their field players are missing a leg and they play using two lower arm crutches running, kicking and dribbling on one foot.

The amputee players did some drills with FCD and then played a 30-minute short field game with them. One particularly fun moment was when their one-armed keeper made a lights-out save that drew applause from everyone.

It's the kind of day that can remind one that sometimes the struggles we face are relative and to keep everything in perspective. It reminded me that I have it pretty good all things considered.

After the drills and scrimmage, the players from both teams all shook hands and took some photos.

Training

After the amputee team moved aside to watch, FC Dallas did about 20 minutes of finishing drills. On one end of the field was a crossing and shooting kind of thing, while the other was more combination play through the middle and getting a shot off.

So today wasn't a great day for my own personal scouting, but that's ok. Here's the list of FCD players taking part in the session.

Kenny Cooper - FCD's 2nd all-time leading scorer, he's 33 now. I walked and talked with him on his way back inside. Still a fantastically gracious guy, just trying to catch on with an MLS team one last time. Currently he lives in Charleston and is involved with some youth soccer stuff there. He had a trial with Orlando a few weeks back.

Ruben Luna - He's been around a couple weeks now. Ex-FCD player also looking for a chance.

And One Academy Player

Seth Wilson- He's the FCD Academy U17 Keeper. To me it's interesting that I keep seeing him with FCD training. There are some U19 keepers around after all. I don't know, maybe it's not interesting and perhaps he's just available to work out. But he is 6'3" and only 15.

One Note

This week the players go through exit interviews. The staff sits down with each player and let's them know where they are in the plans and what they need to work on, then lays out an off season training plan for them.

Catching up with Oscar Pareja

What did you think of the amputee team's visit?

Beautiful, Beautiful. We have done it before and every time you bring them into the training ground we all realize how blessed we are and it's inspiring. But at the same time it's a way for us to create a connection with the community internationally. The diversity of what this sport can reach, you know, it's great.

With the Expansion Draft and the SuperDraft coming up... this is the time of year we usually see a flurry of activity on the roster. Are you engaging in talks, are you close to doing anything?

Right now the boys are going to train until this weekend. What we're doing is having our exit meetings with them. The club is preparing what is called the protection list. We're trying to see some players somewhere else. Maybe a couple of positions that we may need, preparing [a list] as well.

It's not directly my job, but Fernando's [Clavijo]... all these contract extensions and dealing with players and planning the expansion draft, planning around the little window that we have with the training. All those things are happening right now.

So it's fair to say you guys are exploring opportunities for players currently not on your roster either through signing or trading?

It is happening. We're exploring it is the right way to put it. The fact some guys may stay, or may not, and if not we need to replace them.

How do homegrowns potentially fit into that idea? Do you have a couple guys you look to bring in now? Or do you look, maybe in January, and see where you have holes?

We have information about the players that are in college that, whether they are going to be seniors or they are underclassmen, and we are interested in maybe to evaluate the possibility to bring them... We equated with the opportunity, which we know we are going to have in the draft, with the homegrowns that have been here and maybe have not had too much activity.

Then we need to see if it's worth it to keep them here or to loan them. Sometimes the homegrowns have a process... They play the first year and they have some chances; and we see the potential to move up. And sometimes they are so steady and in that part that they don't play much. And then the 2nd year it's better... sometimes it isn't better and then it's time for them to go somewhere and then maybe return. All those things, we are putting that information in to make decisions.

I don't like to wait until January, or February, then say "all right I have two holes, so I'm gonna sign homegrowns." I'm trying to squeeze the errors on signing players that we're not going to use. That happened before. I don't want to do it. It's going to happen at some point, but trying to reduce that is the plan.

Champion's league starts in February, so when do you plan to have your team in place so you can train leading up to that?

We have to start on the 22nd [of January] still, as the union rules. But the players are very committed to come in town the week before and do something on their own. We call it captain's training or something like that. It's something that they do by themselves. So in order to just gain another week of preparation to what is coming on the 22nd. Then we will have the medical exams and then we start right away with the pre-season.

We stay here the first week in Frisco and then we sent in a couple options that we have where we are going to overload the team on the training, but also just have some opportunity to play games that can prepare us for that 20th, 21st, or 22nd that we are expecting the game to be played at. We don't know yet if it's away or if it's here. So that's where we are.

In terms of the roster, I always like to go away that second week of December knowing pretty much at least 80% of the roster is complete.

So we should expect to see some action soon then?

I hope so. It's not easy because of the challenges of the league... and all those things are normal, but I hope that we can have a pretty good idea of what we're looking for.

Is Maynor Figueroa's status with FCD effected by Honduras' failure to qualify for the world cup?

I had this year a lot of problems with national team call ups. It's great to have players going to the camps and being internationals, it's good. But when the roster is not too rich or big it's difficult. The Analysis for this coming year had that topic.

In the case of Maynor, for example, having him in the World Cup or not, and all those things, are part of the analysis. Now it comes to other stuff, his contract, the length of his contract, the willingness of the coach, or the willingness of him... all those things are being factored right now. Not just for Maynor but for several players whose contracts are up. All that is happening at the moment.

It seemed like last year there was a lot of chatter about, this guy wants to go, that guy wants to go... have you had conversations with players about committing for a whole season? Cause your window doesn't line up with the European window.

The experience this year were not easy to deal with. It's something that is normal, but since our windows are so off form what the whole world is, and the scheduling... so it's common in the summer, when we are in the peak of the season, and having players... or the interest from bigger clubs for them... that altered the chemistry for sure.

Now we don't have the power to lock that and say, "you know what, you can't receive offers," that's impossible. What we can do is what you said, try and get a commitment in a different manner, knowing that [summer offers] is happening more often now than before.

Castillo... Mikey... Kellyn... Maxi... and a couple more guys in the summer, are just getting interest... it's impossible as a player that their mind is not going to be thinking about those things. And it doesn't help. Well... it's a challenge, let's say it that way.

Do you want to see MLS go to a winter calendar?

I would love to, yeah. I'll be honest, I would love to.

I still love the league how it is and I love the league how it has grown. I love the way we progress the steady base so we can avoid collapses and markets that are really weak, in terms of attendances or some other stuff that is different here in America.

But thinking about the future, near future, or far future... I don't know... but I think establishing better scheduling, or more world schedule type, would help.

3rd Degree is an independent FC Dallas blog. Founded in 1997, 3rd Degree has been in partnership with the Dallas Morning News since 2012. You can always find us at www.3rdDegree.net, on Twitter @3rdDegreeNet, or on instagram thirddegreenet.